Gerhard Bosch Working time and working time policy in Germany 1 ...

are not – as might be expected – the longer agreed working hours but the longer hours of
East-German part-timers (see section 3.3)
- In some industries the differences between agreed and usual worked hours are bigger than
in others. Average weekly working hours in the West-German engeneering industry
amount to 39,1 hours which is 4,1 hours higher than the agreed hours. The reasons might
be the increase of agreed hours in companies using hardship clauses or not covered by
collective agreements, and paid and unpaid overtime because of the strong export demand
for German manufacturing goods.
- Weekly working hours of blue-collar workers are about 1 hour shorter than working hours
of white collar workers (39,7 compared to 40,6 hours in 2006 – only full-time employed).
The main reason is that working hours for blue collar workers are better regulated while
white collar workers often work unpaid overtime.
- Weekly working hours of (only full-time employed) high-skilled (42 hours in 2006) are
longer than of workers with middle (40 hours) and low skills (40 hours). This can be
explained by skill bottlenecks for skilled workers and by the inceasing informality of
working hours for the high-skilled.
- Weekly working hours of employed in SME’s (less than 50 employed) are longer than in
bigger companies (40,7 compared to 40,0 hours in 2006). The reasons for this are: SME’s
are less covered by collective agreements, they often do not have work councils which
control working hours, and they are under higher cost pressures as suppliers.
Figure 6: Usual weekly working hours in selected European countries 2006
* Data for Ireland from 2004
** EU15 without Ireland, + EU27 without Ireland.
Source: Kümmerling et. al 2008: 119-20 (European Labour Survey 2006)
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